Bright
by bubblegum-flavored icecream
Summary: Okay, so this is my happily-ever-after version of Elfen Lied. Nyu and Kouhta are a happy married couple. But Nyu is haunted with memories of her past life. Will she ever be able to forget? Better than it sounds, pleez read and review!
1. Good News

Kouhta was sleeping peacefully on a bed that felt as light and comfy as a cloud. It was warm and soft. White sheets were wrapped around his body tightly, but not tight enough to suffocate him. Suddenly, there was a brusque movement and the bed creaked. The sheets tightened and Kouhta gasped for air, thinking someone was trying to strangle him.

"Help!" he managed to choke out.

Then he noticed Nyu, awake and clearly panicked. Her eyes seemed to be on the verge to explode or pop out of her sockets. Her skin looked ever pink hair was sticking to her face.

"Kouhta?" she almost shouted in a frantic voice. "Kouhta, what's happening?"

"Don't worry, it's okay, everything's alright. I'm here now. It's okay, it's alright. You're safe. No one got hurt. It's okay."

Nyu relaxed and sighed before snuggling closer to Kouhta's chest. He held her close to him, relieved to feel her heart beating fast but regular, a breath away from his own. Her warmth was reassuring.

"Did you have another nightmare?" he asked in a soft voice, whispering quietly in her ear.

Nyu nodded. She closed her eyes and buried her face in Kouhta's face.

"The doctors", she said weakly. "They were here again. I was chained to the wall… They threw canon balls this time…"

Her voice broke. She could feel tears coming again.

"Shh, it's okay, Nyu. Don't cry, everything's okay. I'm here now, I'm here for you. They're only nightmares. They're not real."

"They're real in my head", Nyu whispered softly.

"No, they're not", Kouhta argued. "They're just memories, bad memories. You will forget them one day, I swear. We're happy and married now, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you again, because now I'm here and I won't ever let go of you again, I promise. I'll take care of you now."

"I love you, Kouhta", Nyu whispered.

"I love you too, Nyu".

There was a short but beautiful silence. Their breathing evened out on the exact same rhythm. Kouhta was happy to see her chest rising and falling like a perfectly healthy woman (he was NOT looking at her boobs. Kouhta's not that sort of jerk). He remembered that day at the lighthouse, when he had shot her himself, and she had died in his very arms… It was a miracle that she had survived. Somehow, her body had pieced itself back together. Her horns had come back, a familiar sight, but for an unknown reason, Lucy's vectors along with herself had disappeared forever. Kaede was a memory now, and Nyu was the present and the future.

"You know, I really do love you, my lovely wife", Kouhta said, then wrinkled his nose. "But your breath really smells awful."

Nyu backed away instantly, her eyes gleaming with fake fury.

"You jerk!" she shouted before pretending to slap him across the face.

They both burst out into crazy fits of laughter, bent down, gasping for air and –simply and totally- looking like complete lunatics.

Kouhta loved hearing his wife laugh. In his life he had heard a lot of women laugh. Yuka's laugh sounded like a metal spoon joyfully clinking on a crystal vase. When Mayu laughed, the sound of her voice was exactly like Nana's, and vice versa. Nozomi-chan sounded like she was singing when she was actually laughing. But for him, Nyu's laughter had always been the most beautiful. She laughed like a four-year-old who was slowly getting a nasty cold. To Kouhta, it was the most beautiful melody in the world, like a lullaby (go figure, true love knows no boundaries after all).

"Okay, as much as I would love to spend our time off in bed, we really have to go now", Kouhta said. "We gotta go to the hospital, remember? We have to get you checked and cured for that nasty thing you got. You've been hurling everyday for the whole week, Nyu. Come on, get dressed."

Nyu was silently silent. Her expression looked sad and nervous. She played with her fingers, sitting down on the mattress and gazing off into space.

"We don't need to go, Kouhta", she said quietly, staring at her hands. "I already know what I've got."

Kouhta froze.

"Wait, what?" he blinked. "You mean you went to the hospital alone? At night or something? Baby, that's not good, there are perverts out there, you should've told me, I would've gone with you..."

"I didn't go to the hospital", Nyu cut him off.

"Then how do you know?" Kouhta asked, puzzled.

Nyu took a deep breath. _Now you're telling him_, the long-forgotten ghost of Kaede scolded her in her mind. _No backing off, you little wimp_.

**I'm scared**, she told Kaede.

_Why the hell should you be scared? _

**I don't know. What if he panics and leaves me?**

_He wouldn't. He loves you._

**He left me before.**

_He didn't really leave you. You just didn't find the right words._

**Uh, sorry, that was you.**

_We're not having this fight again. Tell him!_

**But I'm scared!**

_Scared he'll leave you? He won't. And if he does, I can always call Lucy and ask her to cut his balls off as a punishment. That'd be enough, right?_

**KAEDE! Stop saying that kind of stuff! It's so…vulgar.**

_Oh, now _I_'m vulgar? What about the things _you_ do with Kouhta at night? What would you call _that_?_

**Stop it already, you're not helping!**

_You know what, if you don't tell him NOW, I'll call Lucy anyway and ask her to cut YOUR balls off, even though you don't have any._

**Duh, I'm a freakin' WOMAN. **

"Nyu? Nyu?"

Nyu suddenly snapped back to reality. She blinked a few times, then smiled the widest smile she could manage at her beloved husband.

"Nyu, you're freaking me out here. You were doing that thing again, when you're talking to Kaede inside your head and I just can't get you out of there. Are you alright? What do you have? Is it bad?"

"Kouhta, I took a pregnancy test", Nyu suddenly blurted out.

**Damn you, Kaede! You made me do that!**

_It was necessary. _

**You little…**

"Nyu? Did you say a pregnancy test?" Kouhta's voice asked.

Nyu nodded, and looked away.

"What was the result?"

She took another deep breath, and forced herself to face Kouhta.

"The stick turned blue", she said in a whisper.

"It turned blue?"

"It turned blue."

"It turned _blue_?"

"Yes, it turned BLUE!"

They looked at each other again, then burst out laughing again, crying and laughing at the same time. Kouhta wrapped his arms around his wife and literally swept her off her feet, swirling her wildly in the air. She was laughing again, her lovely, sweet four-year-old laughter, and the sound was so wonderful and Kouhta couldn't believe that life could be so sweet.

"The stick turned blue! The stick turned blue!" Nyu kept shrieking, along with Kaede doing her own little happy dancing in her head.

"It turned BLUE!" Kouhta yelled. "D'you hear that? It turned frickin' BLUE! We're having a baby! We're having a baby!"

"Yes, we are", Nyu said, holding on tightly. "We are!"

Kouhta finally calmed down and they fell into a joyful fit of kisses on the bed, half-laughing like kids, half- caught up in the passion of the moment. At the end they fell silent again, facing each other.

"We're having a baby", Kouhta whispered again. "We're having a baby."

"Yes, we are", Nyu replied, snuggling close to him. "We are."

Nyu might keep getting nightmares from time to time. The memories will never completely fade. When an injury is created, it bleeds for a long time. Then, the flow of blood stops. A scar forms, and scars never disappear. But they don't hurt as much. And Nyu could accept them. She could accept them for the sake of her child. And if Kouhta also had terrifying flashbacks from time to time, he also knew the truth: a scar will appear, and never fade completely. Acceptance will come one day. The future –their future- looked bright.


	2. Kaede

Nine months and two weeks later…

"I'm telling you, we should've decided before her birth", Kouhta sighed for the seventeenth time.

"And I'm telling you we were right to wait", Nyu retorted. "After all, we want her advice, don't we?"

"I guess so", Kouhta sighed again. "Okay, so which is better: Yumi or Rikka?"

Nyu put a finger on her chin and gazed into space. Their little baby girl was sleeping in her bassinet, looking like an angel. Of course, both parents knew there would be hell to pay if they did anything that might wake her up. The last time they had woken her, she had cried and cried for so long, her piercing little voice so high and loud, the neighbors had come to complain about the noise in the middle of the night, all dressed up in their horrible striped pajamas. Nyu and Kouhta had tried to calm them down, but unfortunately Nyu had gotten "carried away" because of post pregnancy stress and had begun screaming at them even louder than her child. Strangely, it had caused the baby to suddenly calm down and fall asleep again, while the mother kept yelling at the neighbors –and vice versa. Kouhta had gotten a bit annoyed at that and then they had one of their fights in front of the neighbors. But nothing ever really got out of hand. They didn't get crazy with fury. They loved each other way too much for that.

The baby had small, white horns on the top of her head, exactly like her mother. Her face also looked like the spit image of Nyu, except that her hair was pitch black like Kouhta's. Her eyes changed colors: when she was happy, her eyes were bright pink; when she begun to get annoyed, her eyes became dark blue. The parents then knew that the screaming part was not far off. The only solution to calm her down then would be to sing Lilium to the child. The melody would appease her like a lullaby.

"I think Yumi is better", Nyu finally declared.

"But Rikka's way more poetic!"

"So? Do we want our little Yumi to be a poet when she grows up?"

"She's not Yumi and hell no, I certainly don't want her to become a poet later! Poets don't get paid a penny in their lives!"

"Exactly! That's why I say we should go with YUMI!"

"RIKKA!"

"YUMI!"

"RIKKA!"

Nyu and Kouhta looked at one another, then again at Yumi/Rikka. She looked so peaceful, so perfect in every detail. Her face, so familiar, so reassuring… It reminded Kouhta of his childhood, and particularly of a very, very special friend he had had then…

"Kaede", he whispered suddenly.

Nyu blinked. "What did you say?"

"What about Kaede?" Kouhta grinned. "She looks like you so much, it would be better to call her Nyu, but that would be daft since you have the same name. So what about Kaede then?"

Nyu hesitated a while, then asked suspiciously: "why Kaede?"

Kouhta pressed his forehead lightly to hers, a simple gesture that meant so much more for the two of them.

"Kaede was my childhood friend", he said softly. "And she was probably the best friend I ever had. And now she's my wife, the person I've always dreamed her to be for me. She's you. You are Kaede, and you are Nyu. Sometimes you're mixed together and it's quite freaky, but I love you all the same. You are not two different people; you are one and only person, and I love you. You were my childhood best friend. You made me feel better when I felt down. You still do. I want our baby to do the same one day for some very, very lucky guy. That's why I want her to have the same name as you. It's lucky you have two names. Nyu is already taken, so I'll just go for Kaede."

Kouhta paused for a short while, then took his forehead off of his wife's.

"So what d'you think?" he asked.

Nyu nodded and smiled. A smile Kouhta knew well. A smile he had first seen on Kaede's face, when they were splashing each other with the lake water, on that very hot day, after they went to the zoo.

"Kaede sounds good."

Kouhta's smile widened. So did Nyu's.

"Okay. So it's Kaede then."

"Yes. Kaede."

Kouhta kissed Nyu lightly on the lips, then looked at Kaede, the newly-named little baby girl.

"Should I?" he asked his wife.

She nodded.

"You have to. It's dinner time. She can't miss her meal."

Kouhta took a deep breath. "Okay, then. Wish me luck."

"Good luck, hubby", Nyu chuckled.

"Thanks. I'm gonna need it this time."

In fact, he did need a lot of luck. Unfortunately, all the luck didn't help him one bit. What had to happen happened: Kaede woke up suddenly, her eyes widened, she started crying, sobbing, then screaming. The neighbors came to complain again. Kouhta suggested they all went back to their own homes and did what they could to calm the baby down, but Nyu disagreed. She ordered Kouhta to go into the bedroom and sing Lilium to young Kaede (it didn't matter how badly he sang it, the melody always worked somehow) while she "settled some scores" with the neighbors.

So Kouhta took little Kaede in his arms and went into the bedroom. He sat down on the edge of the mattress. He began singing Lilium. To say the least of it, he wasn't the best singer in the world –but his daughter seemed to like hearing the sound of his voice combined with the screaming voice of her mother, for she giggled once, yawned a few times and closed her eyes. Kouhta noticed that her breathing had slowed down, and that her eyelids were fluttering.

"She's dreaming… Sweet dreams, my lovely baby girl. I can't even begin to tell you how much your mother and I love you. We've waited for you so long… But you were worth it, Kaede. You're everything we'd always expected. Well, maybe not EVERYTHING, since we expected you to have your mother's pink hair, but it doesn't matter. You're exactly like your mommy Nyu, Kaede. You remind me of her when she was playing with me in the mountains, when we were still very young children. I'm not going to hide the truth from you; you'd know one day anyway. Your mother… she did some nasty stuff when she was younger. She killed many people… only it wasn't her. I swear, it wasn't her. I didn't understand it at the time, but now I do. And you will, one day too, maybe soon or when you're much older, I don't have a clue, but you will understand one day. It wasn't her, so you don't need to be mad at her. She's done nothing wrong and we love her. You can hear her screaming right now, yelling at the neighbors because they were complaining about you. She's defending you. She's defending us. She's brave and naïve and sweet and the most wonderful person I have ever met and will ever meet. You're so lucky to have a mother like her, you have no idea. She made you from scratch, and she's going to protect you with every beating of her heart. She's going to be the best mother in the world to you."

Kouhta paused a while, looking at the sweet little face of Kaede. She was still asleep and calm –for now. She could wake up at any moment, he knew that. He decided he'd better finish what he had to say before Kaede opened her eyes and all hell broke loose.

"And I'll try to be the best father you can have, but I'm not promising anything", he finished jokingly, rocking the baby to and fro.

Nyu came into the room at that moment.

"Hi", she said, a wide grin spread on her face. "Dinner's ready! Kouhta, please be a sweetheart and wake her up", she added in a voice too honey-sweet to be sincere. "I have to go set the plates on the table. Meet you in a minute."

And she huffed out in a hurry before Kouhta could protest.

He looked at the baby again. So much had happened since the lighthouse incident… He had married Nyu and they had had a beautiful baby girl together. They had decided to call her Kaede, a clear proof that they hadn't forgotten the past and the mistakes and the pain, but that they had gradually accepted it. Indeed, Nyu's nightmares had stopped days after Kaede's birth, along with Kouhta's flashbacks.

The scars were still here. They didn't hurt, but they were there. They were there, but they didn't hurt. It was acceptance, not forgetting. Now, they both knew that forgetting was impossible and would be worse than seeing images of the past all the time. Acceptance had come, and over time they had forgiven each other for their past mistakes. Time heals all wounds. When a big ugly scar first appears, it is dark and disgusting. Over time, it becomes clearer and cleaner-looking. And indeed, the scars that they had caused each other were getting clearer and clearer. And it was partly thanks to Kaede.


End file.
